User blog:El Alamein/North Korean Army vs. North Vietnamese Army
It's the most fanatical and fearsome fighting forces the Cold War has spit out in Asia as the North Korean Army, the ground forces that steamrolled into South Korea at the start of the Korean War and tried to resist a UN invasion, takes on the North Vietnamese Army, the conventional ground forces that plowed through South Vietnamese defenses and unified the nation under Communism! Both fought against their non-Communist foes for decades upon decades, but the North Vietnamese Army was ultimately successful while the North Korean Army is still playing its chillingly secretive game of cat-and-mouse with South Korea! Examining the warriors as they were during the 1950's and 60's, which brutal footsoldier would be able to stand up and kill the other? North Korean Army The North Korean Army's invasion of South Korea was the spark that struck a flame, igniting into the Korean War and engulfing the Korean penninsula into an uneasy standoff on the 38th parallel! The Korean People's Army (KPA) swarmed over the 38th Parallel in 1950 and plowed through weak South Korean defenses. The U.S. military came to South Korean aid, landing at the port of Inchon and drove the KPA back into North Korea. After that, the war looked to be falling apart for the "Reds", but when the Capitalist forces approached Red China's border, the Chinese invaded across the Yalu River and the resulting stalemate left the country almost exactly the way it was when it had started, divided across the 38th Parallel. Today the North Korean Army remains a serious threat with nuclear capabilities but its South Korean foes are equally powerful, and a shadow war is being played across the border. North Vietnamese Army The North Vietnamese Army (NVA)was the ultimate fighting force that the Communist forces had to offer in the Vietnam War. After the Viet Cong were all but destroyed during the disastrous Tet Offensive of 1968, the NVA had to become the majority fighting force and they stepped up their game. Laying seige to the Marine base at Khe Sanh and assaulting many U.S. bases on foot, they kept the pressure on the American forces and forced a U.S. withdrawal from the area. Although North Vietnamese leaders agreed to end the war with the United States' departure, they invaded South Vietnam in the 1973 Eastertide Offensive and pushed southward toward the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon, which they eventually captured in 1975. Today the NVA is just the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and they train and drill with iron discipline, as the standard show of military muscle is expected from most Communist nations. Battle: The underground tunnel shook from the force of the U.S. artillery barrage above. A dim lightbulb flickered over a small wooden table in a cramped room in the tunnel. Four men crouched over the table, studying a map spread out over it. They wore tan uniforms with green pith helmets, all smudged with dirt - NVA regulars. "The NLF has requested conventional support around the Cu Chi region," one of the men said, holding a pistol in his hand. "General Giap has remained adamant in the face of U.S. bombings of Hanoi, but he insists that we leave the NLF to conduct missions in South Vietnam. He believes he needs us to defend the homeland." The man slammed his fist on the table hard enough to cause loose dirt from the ceiling to tumble down on their heads. "Well, enough is enough. We've received private orders from Giap to conduct a reconaissance mission down to meet the NLF and train them. Perhaps with this boost in morale and benefit to their training, they'll leave us alone for the time being." He stood up and tried to wipe the grime off of his helmet, but ended up smearing it instead. "We are to leave tomorrow, so rest well." .......... The sun rose early in the morning, bringing bright light and an intolerable heat. U.S. Marines in army camps would be laying low in air-conditioned offices, while river patrol units would be water-skiing from patrol boats. The NVA squad, however, took advantage of the break of enemy activity. Making their way along a side path in the Ho Chi Minh Trail, with only a hand-held compass and map to guide them, the men hiked to their rendezvous point where they would meet up with a local NLF leader. .......... High above in the skies, several outdated Antonov An-2 biplanes carried five KPA paratroopers. Relations had dropped between the two Communist states over a dispute of Chinese munition shipments. These North Koreans were being sent in to conduct a sabotage operation and try to force North Vietnam to the bargain table. The North Koreans hoped to disable enough munitions dumps to force the North Vietnamese to have to purchase a fair amount of new supplies. The North Koreans would step forward with new offers that would be too tempting for the Vietnamese to refuse, and the Vietnamese would be the ones apologizing. The Korean soldiers jumped out of the planes, twisting and turning through the air. The wind whipped at their cheeks as they approached the ground, when they deployed their parachutes and shot back up several meters into the air. Their descent was unhindered by a faulty landing, and they quickly discarded of their parachutes. "Wait a few minutes," the Korean squad leader ordered. "Our weapons and ammunitions are being dropped down too." He drew his pistol, the only weapon on his person, and waited uneasily. .......... "These NLF peasants are a joke," muttered the NVA squad captain. He and his men were back on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, hiking back to their rendezvous point where they would be picked up by helicopter. "Give them a rifle and they can't hit a damn thing 75 meters away." "You don't need to hit something that far away in these cramped jungles," one of the NVA pointed out. "Just sit tight by the side of the trail and wait for a noisy American squad to pass by." He chuckled to himself. "Those Americans might as well bring along the bugles we were using against the French." Off to the side of the trail, leaves rustled. The NVA commander held up his hand. "Shhh." he said. "What was that?" "MACV-SOG?" wondered one of the soldiers aloud, rather uneasily. "Show yourself!" shouted the commander, raising his submachine gun at the bushes. Two Asian men stepped out, confused. "Who are you?" the commander demanded. "Who do these ARVN pricks think they're playing with?" spat one of the soldiers. The two men were North Korean soldiers. "What do we do?" muttered one of the Koreans. "We have to catch up with the rest of the squad." "We can't let the Vietnamese catch us..." whispered the other. And just like that, the two Koreans took off into the underbrush, running. Automatic gunfire from the NVA chased them, but they escaped unharmed. KPA: NVA: The KPA soldiers caught up to their squadmates quickly, shouting and clamoring rapidly. "What's going on?" the North Korean commander asked. "The Vietnamese! We're spotted!" shouted the soldiers. No sooner had they proclaimed this than one of them was cut down by automatic gunfire from behind, exit wounds shattering out his midsection and spraying blood and pieces of flesh everywhere. The NVA soldiers charged down the path, firing their weapons. The KPA soldiers returned fire as they scrambled away. "Stop those invaders!" the NVA commander screamed. The KPA soldiers tore rapidly through the jungle path. Suddenly, the thick undergrowth gave way to a small pond with a few trees surrounding it. Faces sweaty, the soldiers came to a stop. .......... The NVA squad came to a slow halt when they reached the clearing. "RPG," whispered the NVA commander. One of his subordinates brought up the RPG-2 launcher, and gave it to the commander. The rocket is aimed and fired down into the clearing. A massive explosion erupts right in the middle of the pond, sending water flying high into the air. The commander started to reload but the Koreans popped out from various positions of cover, firing their weapons. The NVA helping the commander reload was hit in the chest and falls back, clutching at the wound. It shattered several of his bones, including the sternum and clavicle, and the NVA soldier died coughing up blood. The NVA soldiers rushed forward into the clearing, firing back. The Korean commander stepped out with his Mauser pistol and fired on fully-automatic. Although he missed, the sheer volume of fire sends the Vietnamese scrambling for cover. The KPA soldiers came up with a Type 51 rocket launcher, firing it and sending the warhead right in the middle of the NVA. The white-hot metal fragmentation went flying and it injured several of the NVA soldiers. "Move up!" shouted the NVA commander, hauling one of his injured men to his feet. "Where are they?" he hissed. The North Koreans were gone, the bazooka discarded in the grass. The NVA commander snarled in frustration. "You, with me." he said to the injured man. "You two, go off through the bushes. Flank them." .......... "You've jeapordized the mission!" the KPA commander yelled at his subordinates. "We need to push forward to the munitions dump, it's just a few miles south of here. Move forward!" "Sir, the Vietnamese are following us! We can't just push forward and expect to go unopposed!" one of the soldiers argued. "We need to set up a true ambush - that fight we had by the pond was obvious!" The Korean commander handed the soldier a Mosin-Nagant sniper, and the soldier began scaling up a low palm, hiding in its large bushy fronds. The commander held up his PPSh while the other two soldiers set up the DP machine gun. They held their breaths... and waited. The sniper scanned the green landscape, confused and lost in the busy jungle scenery. He didn't notice the approaching Vietnamese until he could have seen them without a scope. The Korean fired his rifle, but the bullet missed, kicking up the dirt in front of the Vietnamese commander. He frantically worked the bolt on the rifle, his sweaty hand slipping. The Korean commander could not see the NVA and held his men back. One of the NVA soldiers, with a Dragunov sniper rifle, backed away and hid in a bush on the ground, looking up in the trees. The Korean sniper finally worked the bolt and fired down again at the NVA, catching the injured man in the wrist and snapping the bone. The NVA commander left his disabled soldier for dead and poked cautiously through the bushes, looking for the sniper. The Korean slipped two rounds into the internal feed system one by one, before he closed the bolt and steeled his nerves to pop out of the tree for another shot. The NVA below him were out of sight, except for the injured man clutching his wrist on the ground. The Korean put another bullet into the Vietnamese man's stomach. He reached over to grab the bolt, but the Vietnamese sniper found his opponent, pulled the trigger, and sent the 7.62x54 mm bullet flying through the humid air and into the Korean's forehead. The KPA sniper's head mushroomed out like a melon and the dead man tumbled out of the tree in a fall that would have killed him if he had survived the shot. The sniper waited as his squadmate caught up with the RPD machine gun. The NVA commander walked right into the KPA ambush. The Koreans opened up with the DP machine gun and the NVA commander was sprayed through his chest, falling over and laying very still. The gunfire attracted the attention of the other two North Vietnamese soldiers, and they rushed over to their commander's location, catching the KPA out in the open. The Vietnamese sniper dropped his Dragunov for a more close-ranged SKS rifle and the machine-gunner dropped to the prone position with his RPD. The two men opened fire, the RPD mowing a path through the grass toward the Koreans on the DP. The two Koreans stood up to run but one was shot through the head with the SKS rifle. The NVA commander rolled over onto his stomach and held his pistol, keeping his head low. The Korean commander had spent his magazine with the PPSH and picked up his SVT-40 rifle. As the SKS-toting Vietnamese man fired off round after round on the fleeing Korean, the KPA commander placed a shot right under the NVA soldier's arm, killing him with a bullet to the chest. The North Vietnamese machine gunner stopped firing as the ammunition on his belt ran out, and he reached up to take the one slung over his shoulders. Crouching under fire from the Korean commander and his now-rallied soldier, the NVA gunner retreated back into the bushes. He put the RPD down in the bushes and retreated deeper into the jungle path. The Koreans gave chase, and when they spotted the barrel of the RPD sticking out of the undergrowth, they fired into the bushes where they assumed the machine-gunner was hiding. However, the NVA gunner popped out from the other side of the trail with his MAT-49, cutting down the Korean soldier with a flurry of bullets through his back. The KPA commander hit the dirt and rolled over, popping off several shots with his Mauser pistol, dropping the Vietnamese soldier. As the faint echoes of the gunshots disappeared and gave way to the white noise of the jungle, the Korean leader listens to his own breathing, and counts off all five casualties he has inflicted. He stands up and gives a wild shout of victory, before one final gunshot pops off and smashes through the Korean's cheek, knocking him to the ground. The NVA commander limps over to his fallen foe, doubled over in pain, and spits on the injured man. "Whoever you are..." he groaned, "wherever you come from... you will not take our land, our people, our cause." The KPA commander rolls over weakly and looks down the barrel of the pistol as it fires again, right into his nose, sending blood through the air and killing him. The NVA soldier's breathing is torn and ragged, but he has a walkie-talkie. He radios back to the NLF squadron that he had trained for medical attention, before he stumbles to a knee and drags himself over to the bottom of a tall palm. He changes magazines on his pistol and waits, eyes clenched in pain. The jungle returns to its busy cacaphony of insects, birds and animals - for the time being, at least. WINNER: NORTH VIETNAMESE ARMY Expert's Opinon The NVA were much more successful historically, actually defeating the United States and its allies and unifying its country under Communism - North Korea is still separate from South Korea. Also, the North Vietnamese had improved technology that managed to give higher rates of fire, greater stopping power and more reliable functions with the weaponry. While both warriors were well-prepared mentally and were ruthless to the end, the NVA's experience and better weaponry is what carried them to victory. Category:Blog posts